Over 100 students left Stanford Stadium as Google CEO Sundar Pichai began his address.
Over 100 Stanford University students walked out of the university stadium on Sunday as Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, began to deliver his commencement address. The protest was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid, among other radical leftist groups.
“Free, free Palestine,” the students chanted as they left the stadium, drowning out the opening lines of Sundar’s address. They waved Palestinian flags and many wore traditional keffiyehs.
“To all the graduates who chose conscience rather than comfort, we thank you,” Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine later posted on its club Instagram page. “Today, we denied the speech of a genocidal company’s CEO. We walked toward our People’s Commencement.”
The protest was announced on Students for Justice in Palestine’s social media in mid-May.
“We don’t need another tech billionaire to tell us how to get rich off the killing and surveillance of Palestinians and U.S. immigrants,” the post announced.
The post included a link to a Google form. This form included an official sign-up, a link to a FAQ Google Document helping students explain the walkout to their friends and family, and invited students to the “People’s Commencement Ceremony” across from the stadium.
Dr. Mohammad Subeh was the commencement speaker for this alternative ceremony. Stanford’s 2025 Markaz Alumni Awardee, Subeh is a Kuwait-born Palestinian activist who has led medical missions in places like Gaza.
This pro-Palestinian ceremony was motivated by Google’s close ties with Israel as well as its connection to ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Israeli Military of Defense has used Google Cloud’s computing services and, according to TIME, was given a 15 percent discount on the service from Google.
Sundar’s speech itself, however, was not deliberately controversial. The CEO skirted around discussing Google itself, only referencing the organization by name twice, and focused instead on the lessons Sundar learned early on through the job. He also avoided the issue of AI, a subject that has been addressed in many other Ivy League commencement speeches this year.
Sundar’s speech centered around three core lessons from his experiences in college and the workforce: the importance of choosing optimism, prioritizing hard things, and doing what excites you.
“You are going to face a lot of moments in your life. Only a few of them are really important and you need to get them right,” he said.
Despite the protest, the speech lasted a full 14 minutes.
“Now, go out and set your heart ablaze!” Sundar said at its close. “Congratulations!”